As fellow warriors, we had been invited to participate in a celebration of victory. My thoughts were on our mission, which was, I reasoned, our first responsibility. However, as we sat unsmiling before the meal, the tendons curled like the cuffs of discarded shoes, sprigs of green set between the toes, the noise around us died. We are not, and in view of our role as emissaries should not appear to be, cannibals. Aside from what for us is a natural physical distaste for human flesh, there is of course the strongly felt moral prescription.
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Several whole, well-done right feet, for it is the prerogative of senior commanders to be offered the right foot, lay on beds of leaves and chopped pineapple. It was difficult to know what to do when the platters were laid before us. Perhaps the two are so conjoined in the minds of the savages, the one being invariably associated with the other, as to form a single event-by all evidence, the most significant in the life of the tribe. Whether the wild jubilation at these gatherings is occasioned by the successful military engagement or by the prospect of dining on the preferred dish is, for an outsider, hard to say. They are then held in the hands and eaten whole, as we would eat corn from the cob, or a leg of chicken. When they are nearly crisp on the outside, the cooks, who occupy high positions in tribal society, lift the spits in the air and offer the feet to the warriors in order of precedence. Spitted through the instep, they rotate slowly in rows over the flames and are basted with coconut butter.
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Owing to this rarity of comestible feet, they are most typically eaten at feasts celebrating achievements in battle, and are roasted. The longer metatarsals are worn singly in the ear, or, conjoined to the heel bone in a spray, may decorate the headdress of council elders. Eventually the toe bones appear on the necklaces of the champions. The squires of the victorious warriors circulate among the slain, harvesting each foot with only two downward strokes of a sharpened-stone or clamshell axe, severing the tendons fore and aft and removing the foot below the ankle. The feet of the losers are then claimed as trophies.
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There is an abundance of available feet only when the tribe has been successful in battle. Especially prized is the pad of the big toe, which is hospitably reserved for guests. The toes may be marinated separately and eaten as hors d'oeuvres. A single large adult foot, topped with tamarind sauce and garnished with mango or pineapple, makes a meal for two. They are served boiled, fried and smoked, but roasting is the most usual form of preparation. Feet are considered a delicacy among the cannibals here.